NewEgg officially stinks. After refusing to give me any restocking fee / return shipping credit on my order, I decided it wasn't worth it to send the board back, I mean let's look at it here;
-$35 <- What I paid for the board.
-$6 <- shipping I paid for board.
-$5.25 <- Restocking fee.
-$10.00 <- Return shipping fee
+$29.75 <- What they would refund me (after restocking fee).
-$10.00 <- Subtract the return shipping fee
--------
$19.75
In the end, I would get back $19.75 of what I paid. In the end, that $19.75 is a mere 38% of what I had to pay to get a defective board.
After buying all of my computer parts from them for the past several years, they can be damn sure never to get another dollar off of me. Why should I have to pay a return shipping fee, and have them deduct a restocking fee for a defective motherboard? I would totally understand it if I just didn't want the motherboard, but the board was defective.
The person I spoke to on the phone from NewEgg told me that next time I shouldn't buy open box products. I told him, even though he probably could care less, that next time I wouldn't buy any Newegg products.
I ordered my eeePC from Amazon.com. Never again will I piss around with NewEgg. I will go to their site to read reviews on products, but I will order from other companies.
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
eeePC Ordered.
Well, well well. I ordered my Dell Inspiron 1525 back in January, messed with it for a couple of days and now its just been sitting on the top of my laser printer for the past couple of weeks, barely being touched.
I never did a review on it, mostly because I haven't really used it much. It's a very nice laptop in general, but I'm not really a laptop kind of guy. The keyboard drives me up a wall too (in the short time I've used it). I usually eat snacks while computing (who doesn't?), and recently two small pieces of potato chips under the keyboard, and instantly my "P" and "L" keys became stuck. I've never had this kind of problem before with a laptop keyboard. I literally had to remove the keys from the keyboard and reinsert them in order to regain function of the keys.
Another reason why I never use the damn thing is probably because Windows Vista is impossible to work with. I can't deal with all the shit that operating system throws at me (COM Surrogate errors, and blue screen of death errors [IN THE PAST SIX YEARS OF USING XP, I ONLY SAW THREE BLUE SCREEN OF DEATH ERRORs. WITH VISTA I HAVE SEEN ABOUT TEN IN ONE MONTH].
Sigh.
I finally decided to order an eee PC. I have been interested in them for a long time, and originally was going to purchase one when they were originally released, but they drastically raised the price. When I saw all of the available hacks for the device, I decided I should get one and try it out.
I bit the bullet, and ended up purchasing a 4G Surf Galaxy Black model from Amazon.com for $350, and opted for overnight shipping ($4, because I signed up for the Amazon Prime trial). If all goes good, I should have it tomorrow. I'm also ordering a touch screen kit for it, and am going to replace the 512mb of RAM with a 2gb stick I have from the Inspiron. I opted for the Surf model because I need the empty webcam port on the motherboard so I can easily hookup the touchscreen. I'm not really worried about the extra hour of battery life on the other models, because the maximum battery life I really need is one hour.
I'm going to try and load XP on this bad boy, overclock it to 800 mhz, and
see if I can actually use the damn thing with the 7" LCD. The resolution to me, isn't really a big deal considering I was using 800 x 600 until 2004. We'll see... we'll see...
As for the Athlon LE 1620, I still have to write a review up of it, and stuff.
I never did a review on it, mostly because I haven't really used it much. It's a very nice laptop in general, but I'm not really a laptop kind of guy. The keyboard drives me up a wall too (in the short time I've used it). I usually eat snacks while computing (who doesn't?), and recently two small pieces of potato chips under the keyboard, and instantly my "P" and "L" keys became stuck. I've never had this kind of problem before with a laptop keyboard. I literally had to remove the keys from the keyboard and reinsert them in order to regain function of the keys.
Another reason why I never use the damn thing is probably because Windows Vista is impossible to work with. I can't deal with all the shit that operating system throws at me (COM Surrogate errors, and blue screen of death errors [IN THE PAST SIX YEARS OF USING XP, I ONLY SAW THREE BLUE SCREEN OF DEATH ERRORs. WITH VISTA I HAVE SEEN ABOUT TEN IN ONE MONTH].
Sigh.
I finally decided to order an eee PC. I have been interested in them for a long time, and originally was going to purchase one when they were originally released, but they drastically raised the price. When I saw all of the available hacks for the device, I decided I should get one and try it out.
I bit the bullet, and ended up purchasing a 4G Surf Galaxy Black model from Amazon.com for $350, and opted for overnight shipping ($4, because I signed up for the Amazon Prime trial). If all goes good, I should have it tomorrow. I'm also ordering a touch screen kit for it, and am going to replace the 512mb of RAM with a 2gb stick I have from the Inspiron. I opted for the Surf model because I need the empty webcam port on the motherboard so I can easily hookup the touchscreen. I'm not really worried about the extra hour of battery life on the other models, because the maximum battery life I really need is one hour.
I'm going to try and load XP on this bad boy, overclock it to 800 mhz, and
see if I can actually use the damn thing with the 7" LCD. The resolution to me, isn't really a big deal considering I was using 800 x 600 until 2004. We'll see... we'll see...
As for the Athlon LE 1620, I still have to write a review up of it, and stuff.
Sunday, February 10, 2008
I Hate Vista.
I hate Vista. I hate it. I think Microsoft should have a program that allows people to trade their Vista keys in for XP keys. My Dell Inspiron 1525 laptop came with Windows Vista Home Premium. I can honestly say that after using Vista for a month on this thing, there is nothing premium about it.
My laptop's basic specs are a Intel Pentium Dual Core T2330, (1.6ghz Core 2 architecture, not one of those older Core based Pentium Dual Core things [I mean chips]) 2.5 gb of RAM, a 160gb HD, DVD burner, etc.
It shouldn't really have any problems running Vista, right?
Wrong.
When I first received the machine, I quickly loaded the included Windows installation disc, formatted the hard drive, and reinstalled Vista. I tried to use the machine before doing this, but Dell loaded so much shit on the thing that getting anything done on the machine was impossible.
After doing a clean install of Vista, I booted the machine up, and the performance increased greatly. Still, compared to my older XP machines, the performance still sucked.
I turned Aero off. Aero is the biggest pile of shit on the planet. It looks like shit, doesn't add any functionality to the UI, and takes up a buttload of system resources.
I also went into Window services and turned off a wide variety of services I didn't need. I got rid of that horrible Windows sidebar, disabled a bunch of other crap, and eventually got the system running at a decent pace.
Things started to get ugly soon after, when I decided to start installing very basic software (well, what I believe to be basic, necessary software). I installed an NES emulator, Microsoft Office, JDK, and Nero.
Now, Internet Explorer 7 "Stops Working, And Windows Is Searching For A Solution", and I keep getting this #@#!ing COM Surrogate error every time I try to do something media related with the damn laptop. Not only that, but copying files under Vista has given me about the same experience as working with a Commodore 64 floppy disk drive; I select the files, hit Copy, and go outside and play basketball for twenty minutes while I wait for the files to be copied.
I hate Vista. I hate it. I wish Microsoft would just say "Hey guys! We made a mistake! Everyone who has Vista, and wants a copy of XP for $19.95, Go to www.microsoft.com/we_are_sorry/ for more details!"
But it won't happen. And that's one of the many reasons the feared tech sector juggernaut of the 1990's will slowly fade into obscurity in the upcoming decades.
Friday, February 8, 2008
Newegg Sucks Again [Rant]
Okay, so the weekend is here and instead of playing around with my new AMD Athlon 64 LE-1620 and XFCE, I am just screwing around with my laptop. I sent NewEgg an email yesterday, but they didn't respond. I wanted to ask them about getting a shipping discount for a new motherboard, and also ask them about the restocking fee.
I decided to call NewEgg up and ask them about it because I really wanted to order another motherboard (specifically, the ASRock ALIVENF6G-VSTA AM2 because of its Micro-ATX form factor, four memory slots, and the fact that it doesn't require a 24-pin power supply [I have a very small micro-atx case with a 20-pin power supply I wanted to use]). Newegg responded by telling me that I would have to wait until they received the old motherboard back before and could test the board before they would consider giving me a shipping discount. I told him I kind of did not want to wait a week before getting a shipping discount, and then wait another couple of days for the board to arrive, but he didn't seem to care. I told him that he could look at my order history and see I spend a lot of money there, but again he didn't seem to care.
I was kinda pissed off.
I got off the phone, went to Newegg and ordered the above board (It's crazy; a week ago this board was $49.99, then it went up to $52.99, and now its $59.99 with free three day shipping). I ordered the board, and NewEgg shipped it today; the only problem was instead of shipping it UPS Three Day, they shipped it UPS Ground.
I fucking hate this. It's always a gamble when I buy shit from NewEgg and its "Free Three Day Shipping". When the packages come from California, it's always three day shipping, but when the packages come from New Jersey, 85% of the time, they ship it Ground. Now, it is only a 380 mile distance, but why the hell does NewEgg say free three day shipping, and then ship it UPS Ground?
Three Day Shipping is a lot faster than Ground, even if its only a mere 400 miles. Trust me. About a year ago, I made a couple of orders from NewEgg in the same day. One order was a CPU and some RAM, and another order was for a heatsink / fan. The CPU / RAM was shipped Ground, and the fan was shipped Three Day.
I got the fan 2 days later. I got the CPU and RAM, about 4 days later. There is a difference. When I order parts, and they ship from New Jersey and they are shipped Ground, they fucking sit in Parsippany New Jersey for an extra day or two. When I order parts and they are shipped Three Days, the parts are in Parsippany for like eight hours.
I'm wondering if I should even ship the piece of shit Gigabyte board back to NewEgg. Chances are, I'm only going to get $27 after I return the board [After paying $46 (with shipping) and paying to have it shipped back to them, and have them charge me a fucking 15% restocking fee).
I think Newegg has lost me as a customer. I'm going to try someone else next time I need computer parts.
I decided to call NewEgg up and ask them about it because I really wanted to order another motherboard (specifically, the ASRock ALIVENF6G-VSTA AM2 because of its Micro-ATX form factor, four memory slots, and the fact that it doesn't require a 24-pin power supply [I have a very small micro-atx case with a 20-pin power supply I wanted to use]). Newegg responded by telling me that I would have to wait until they received the old motherboard back before and could test the board before they would consider giving me a shipping discount. I told him I kind of did not want to wait a week before getting a shipping discount, and then wait another couple of days for the board to arrive, but he didn't seem to care. I told him that he could look at my order history and see I spend a lot of money there, but again he didn't seem to care.
I was kinda pissed off.
I got off the phone, went to Newegg and ordered the above board (It's crazy; a week ago this board was $49.99, then it went up to $52.99, and now its $59.99 with free three day shipping). I ordered the board, and NewEgg shipped it today; the only problem was instead of shipping it UPS Three Day, they shipped it UPS Ground.
I fucking hate this. It's always a gamble when I buy shit from NewEgg and its "Free Three Day Shipping". When the packages come from California, it's always three day shipping, but when the packages come from New Jersey, 85% of the time, they ship it Ground. Now, it is only a 380 mile distance, but why the hell does NewEgg say free three day shipping, and then ship it UPS Ground?
Three Day Shipping is a lot faster than Ground, even if its only a mere 400 miles. Trust me. About a year ago, I made a couple of orders from NewEgg in the same day. One order was a CPU and some RAM, and another order was for a heatsink / fan. The CPU / RAM was shipped Ground, and the fan was shipped Three Day.
I got the fan 2 days later. I got the CPU and RAM, about 4 days later. There is a difference. When I order parts, and they ship from New Jersey and they are shipped Ground, they fucking sit in Parsippany New Jersey for an extra day or two. When I order parts and they are shipped Three Days, the parts are in Parsippany for like eight hours.
I'm wondering if I should even ship the piece of shit Gigabyte board back to NewEgg. Chances are, I'm only going to get $27 after I return the board [After paying $46 (with shipping) and paying to have it shipped back to them, and have them charge me a fucking 15% restocking fee).
I think Newegg has lost me as a customer. I'm going to try someone else next time I need computer parts.
Thursday, February 7, 2008
NewEgg Finally Lets Me Down
I've been shopping at NewEgg since they literally opened (back in 2001). I remember searching for NewEgg reviews, and finding out a lot of people did not trust this 'new company'. I was only 16 at the time, and I was working 20 hours a week making $5.15 an hour. In other words, I didn't have a lot of cash to spend, so I gave NewEgg a chance in 2001 when I ordered an OEM AMD Duron 950mhz processor for around $50, and a Open Box Socket A motherboard for a mere $25. Hell, for $75 I was getting a motherboard and a CPU (it was, and will forever be my favorite computer setup ever).
Over the past seven years, I have ordered a lot of shit from NewEgg. I've ordered more RAM and processors than you can shake a stick at. One of the biggest things I order from NewEgg are Open Box motherboards. I do this because, they usually close to 1/2 price of the new boards, and secondly I really don't need all the crap that comes with a motherboard. In case you didn't know, when you buy a open box board from NewEgg, you're basically getting the motherboard alone (if you're lucky they put it in a box, but lately they have just been shipping me the board wrapped in bubblewrap).
I haven't used a floppy drive in the past five years, so I don't need the FDD cable (truth be told, I have about twenty brand new ones from boards I have purchased just laying in a box in my basement). IDE cables are great, but I have a shitload of those too. Some motherboards come with SATA cables, and some even come with molex to SATA power adapters (which are the greatest thing in the universe, but they are all lacking).
And those manuals that come with motherboards? Forget about them. I swear, motherboard manufacturers don't even bother to update the manuals. They all consist of the same things;
1. How To Install CPU
2. How To Install RAM
3. Shitty Explanation Of Board Features
4. Shitty Explanation OF BIOS Features
Totally useless, unless you are clueless.
Anyhow, back to my original point. I have purchased many items from NewEgg over the past seven years. I've purchased new products (I ONLY EVER BUY NEW CPUS. I WILL NEVER EVER BUY A USED / OPEN BOX / REFURBISHED CPU), new OEM, refurbished, and open box products. I've only had mild problems with products I purchased in the past (PC SHIT.. or CHIPS motherboards failing after a couple of months), but now I can say I've finally had a problem with a NEwEgg product, and had to file for an RMA.
I bought a Open Box AM2 motherboard to go along with my new Athlon LE-1620 processor. I have pretty much always been either a Biostar or PC Chips guy when it comes to motherboards, but this time I decided to give Gigabyte a chance. So I ordered an open box GIGABYTE GA-M61SME-S2 motherboard. It retails new for $49, but I got it open box for $35 (keep in mind, this board is just for a hobby box, meaning I'm going to benchmark the CPU, screw around with Linux, and then sell it in a few weeks like I usually do).
I was really excited for the board and CPU to come, but when the board arrived I knew I was finally going to have a problem with a NewEgg order. Instead of coming in a box, they wrapped the board in bubblewrap! Usually when I order a board from NewEgg, they at least put it in a motherboard box. But not with this board.
I anxiously through the system together. And I booted it up, and was quickly let down.
It booted ok.
The VGA output was all messed up. After a careful analysis, the north bridge Geforce 6100 chip was having some serious issues. I had to keep constant pressure on the corner of the heatsink in order for the integrated display to function correctly. Not only that, but because I believe the South bridge was also in the same area, as the computer acted retarded (Couldn't recognize a SATA drive, gave hundreds of errors booting a Linux livecd, etc).
Sadly, I had to file a RMA request from NewEgg. I was really pissed off when I found out that NewEgg was going to charge be a $5 restocking fee (how can you restock a defective motherboard) and I had to pay $9 to ship the son of a bitch board back to them. That means, I spent a total of $41 for the board ($35 + $6 shipping) and will get a total of $27 back. I was really just planning on junking the board, but I have that beautiful AMD Athlon LE-1620 with a freakin' meg of L2 cache to use.
Pretty hard to buy a AM2 board for $27. I guess I can honestly say that after all of these years of being a Newegg customer, I am kind of pissed that I am losing 35% of my initial investment and a couple hours of my time because I received a defectvie board.
Over the past seven years, I have ordered a lot of shit from NewEgg. I've ordered more RAM and processors than you can shake a stick at. One of the biggest things I order from NewEgg are Open Box motherboards. I do this because, they usually close to 1/2 price of the new boards, and secondly I really don't need all the crap that comes with a motherboard. In case you didn't know, when you buy a open box board from NewEgg, you're basically getting the motherboard alone (if you're lucky they put it in a box, but lately they have just been shipping me the board wrapped in bubblewrap).
I haven't used a floppy drive in the past five years, so I don't need the FDD cable (truth be told, I have about twenty brand new ones from boards I have purchased just laying in a box in my basement). IDE cables are great, but I have a shitload of those too. Some motherboards come with SATA cables, and some even come with molex to SATA power adapters (which are the greatest thing in the universe, but they are all lacking).
And those manuals that come with motherboards? Forget about them. I swear, motherboard manufacturers don't even bother to update the manuals. They all consist of the same things;
1. How To Install CPU
2. How To Install RAM
3. Shitty Explanation Of Board Features
4. Shitty Explanation OF BIOS Features
Totally useless, unless you are clueless.
Anyhow, back to my original point. I have purchased many items from NewEgg over the past seven years. I've purchased new products (I ONLY EVER BUY NEW CPUS. I WILL NEVER EVER BUY A USED / OPEN BOX / REFURBISHED CPU), new OEM, refurbished, and open box products. I've only had mild problems with products I purchased in the past (PC SHIT.. or CHIPS motherboards failing after a couple of months), but now I can say I've finally had a problem with a NEwEgg product, and had to file for an RMA.
I bought a Open Box AM2 motherboard to go along with my new Athlon LE-1620 processor. I have pretty much always been either a Biostar or PC Chips guy when it comes to motherboards, but this time I decided to give Gigabyte a chance. So I ordered an open box GIGABYTE GA-M61SME-S2 motherboard. It retails new for $49, but I got it open box for $35 (keep in mind, this board is just for a hobby box, meaning I'm going to benchmark the CPU, screw around with Linux, and then sell it in a few weeks like I usually do).
I was really excited for the board and CPU to come, but when the board arrived I knew I was finally going to have a problem with a NewEgg order. Instead of coming in a box, they wrapped the board in bubblewrap! Usually when I order a board from NewEgg, they at least put it in a motherboard box. But not with this board.
I anxiously through the system together. And I booted it up, and was quickly let down.
It booted ok.
The VGA output was all messed up. After a careful analysis, the north bridge Geforce 6100 chip was having some serious issues. I had to keep constant pressure on the corner of the heatsink in order for the integrated display to function correctly. Not only that, but because I believe the South bridge was also in the same area, as the computer acted retarded (Couldn't recognize a SATA drive, gave hundreds of errors booting a Linux livecd, etc).
Sadly, I had to file a RMA request from NewEgg. I was really pissed off when I found out that NewEgg was going to charge be a $5 restocking fee (how can you restock a defective motherboard) and I had to pay $9 to ship the son of a bitch board back to them. That means, I spent a total of $41 for the board ($35 + $6 shipping) and will get a total of $27 back. I was really just planning on junking the board, but I have that beautiful AMD Athlon LE-1620 with a freakin' meg of L2 cache to use.
Pretty hard to buy a AM2 board for $27. I guess I can honestly say that after all of these years of being a Newegg customer, I am kind of pissed that I am losing 35% of my initial investment and a couple hours of my time because I received a defectvie board.
Tuesday, February 5, 2008
Why I Didn't Buy A Macbook
In early January I purchased a Dell Inspiron 1525 from Staples (mostly because I had some killer coupons, and got a pretty impressive laptop for next to peanuts). But before I purchased the Inspiron, I had been planning for several months (okay maybe since Apple announced the updated MacBooks at the end of October) on purchasing a new Macbook.
Why did I want a Macbook? I can answer that question by asking "Why not?". I was wrapped up in OS X and the iLife suite, that I started to get my mind set on purchasing a MacBook. My fiancee continually reminded me that during our relationship, I had purchased several Apple computers (Okay, let's get the list out; an iBook G4, eMac, PowerMac G5, Mac Mini G4, Mac Mini Core Solo) only to bitch and moan about their performance and sell them on eBay.
She also reminded me of the enormous price. $1100 for a very basic laptop. During November and December I tried to explain to her the additional cost of the system, but eventually I fell up short. I started to loose interest in OS X by January, and I quickly gave thanks to my fiancee for helping to prevent me from purchasing a MacBook, that would have found itself on eBay within a few weeks.
Why didn't I buy a Macbook?
Okay, the price of a Macbook is out of this world. I don't care if it comes with OS X and I can run iLife on it (Pretty much any modern x86 machine can run OS X if you set your heart to [meaning you spend a couple hours tinkering with it]) The $1100 base price is a joke. Apple wants to charge $1100 for a system that comes with one gigabyte of memory, and an 80 gb HD. Oh yeah, the base model can't even burn DVDs. 2005 called, and they want their budget laptop specifications back.
For me, the $1100 base model would have quickly jumped to over $1300. I would have purchased 4 gb of RAM ($100), and a 160gb HD ($150) from NewEgg and installed it myself. Not only that, but I would have two sticks of 512mb RAM and a useless 80gb HD that I would end up trying to sell on eBay. Oh yeah, and I still wouldn't be able to burn a #$@@#R'in DVD! What the hell Apple? At least give people the ability to burn DVDs with a $1100 laptop.
Looking at the competition, the Sunday newspaper has a vast variety of laptop specials for under $500, and these $500 laptops all have at least a gig of memory, a spacious (120+ gb HD) and a DVD burner. Sure, they don't have the shitty 13.3 inch widescreen (they have a bigger 15.4 or a 14.1 widescreen) or the cool white Macbook scheme, but at least they have two trackpad buttons. (Another 'What the hell Apple?', who really wants laptop with only one mouse button?)
I tried to think of things I could defend the Macbook with (besides running OS X) but I ultimately came up short. It is true that the Core 2 Duo processors that the Macbooks use have a 4mb L2 cache, but who really cares? What's that L2 cache going to do for somebody that purchases the $1100 Macbook and wants to burn a DVD? "Wow, my Macbook really compressed that DVD video quickly! Too bad I don't have a $#$@# DVD burner to burn the DVD with"
I also thought of that new Magsafe AC adapter, but after researching it, I found out that tons of people have reported problems with the adapter. I guess while in theory its a really good idea, but in practice its a flaw filled design.
Then finally, for a brief second I thought about 'build quality' and laughed for about fifteen minutes before I continued to write this post. Tons of people say that Apple builds damn good products. Unfortunately, after owning several new Apple products, I can say by my account, Apple has the worst product build quality.
For example, I bought a G4 iBook in 2004. During my brief one year ownership, I had it serviced four times for the same LCD / logic board problem (the LCD backlight would fail to turn on). I kept the laptop on a desk the whole time, so under no circumstance was it my fault. After having it serviced the fourth time, Apple gave me a new iBook, which I quickly sold on eBay. I purchased a Compaq laptop, and after three years never had one issue with it.
I also had severe problems with a Intel Core Solo Mac Mini I purchased. Something was wrong with the Combo Drive; one startup the system would recognize the drive, the next startup the system wouldn't recongize the drive at all. The SATA hard drive controller also displayed problems when I was copying / transferring data. Unfortunately, when I contacted Apple for this problem, the service technicians actually tried to convince me that these problems were 'features' and would not do anything to help my Intel Mac Mini. So it went off to eBay, problems and all.
So why did I want to stick with Apple? It's not because of their hardware (it sucks), its because I really enjoy the software. Then again, it could just be that I'm stupid and wanted to give Apple yet another chance. Yeah, that's probably it.
But would I ever buy a Mac product again?
Most likely not. I go through enough computer hardware as it is. Sure OS X is cool for ten minutes, but that ten minutes of coolness is expensive. For the price of the base Macbook ($1100) I purchased a 1.6ghz Pentium Dual Core, 4gb RAM, 200gb HD, DVD burning, 15.4 widescreen Dell Inspiron that gets 4-5 hours of battery life for about 1/2 the price of the Mac Book.
"But it's not a Mac!"
Who cares?
Besides, OS X Leopard can run perfect (with all devices working) on this Inspiron 1525, in case I ever decide to screw around with OS X again.
Why did I want a Macbook? I can answer that question by asking "Why not?". I was wrapped up in OS X and the iLife suite, that I started to get my mind set on purchasing a MacBook. My fiancee continually reminded me that during our relationship, I had purchased several Apple computers (Okay, let's get the list out; an iBook G4, eMac, PowerMac G5, Mac Mini G4, Mac Mini Core Solo) only to bitch and moan about their performance and sell them on eBay.
She also reminded me of the enormous price. $1100 for a very basic laptop. During November and December I tried to explain to her the additional cost of the system, but eventually I fell up short. I started to loose interest in OS X by January, and I quickly gave thanks to my fiancee for helping to prevent me from purchasing a MacBook, that would have found itself on eBay within a few weeks.
Why didn't I buy a Macbook?
Okay, the price of a Macbook is out of this world. I don't care if it comes with OS X and I can run iLife on it (Pretty much any modern x86 machine can run OS X if you set your heart to [meaning you spend a couple hours tinkering with it]) The $1100 base price is a joke. Apple wants to charge $1100 for a system that comes with one gigabyte of memory, and an 80 gb HD. Oh yeah, the base model can't even burn DVDs. 2005 called, and they want their budget laptop specifications back.
For me, the $1100 base model would have quickly jumped to over $1300. I would have purchased 4 gb of RAM ($100), and a 160gb HD ($150) from NewEgg and installed it myself. Not only that, but I would have two sticks of 512mb RAM and a useless 80gb HD that I would end up trying to sell on eBay. Oh yeah, and I still wouldn't be able to burn a #$@@#R'in DVD! What the hell Apple? At least give people the ability to burn DVDs with a $1100 laptop.
Looking at the competition, the Sunday newspaper has a vast variety of laptop specials for under $500, and these $500 laptops all have at least a gig of memory, a spacious (120+ gb HD) and a DVD burner. Sure, they don't have the shitty 13.3 inch widescreen (they have a bigger 15.4 or a 14.1 widescreen) or the cool white Macbook scheme, but at least they have two trackpad buttons. (Another 'What the hell Apple?', who really wants laptop with only one mouse button?)
I tried to think of things I could defend the Macbook with (besides running OS X) but I ultimately came up short. It is true that the Core 2 Duo processors that the Macbooks use have a 4mb L2 cache, but who really cares? What's that L2 cache going to do for somebody that purchases the $1100 Macbook and wants to burn a DVD? "Wow, my Macbook really compressed that DVD video quickly! Too bad I don't have a $#$@# DVD burner to burn the DVD with"
I also thought of that new Magsafe AC adapter, but after researching it, I found out that tons of people have reported problems with the adapter. I guess while in theory its a really good idea, but in practice its a flaw filled design.
Then finally, for a brief second I thought about 'build quality' and laughed for about fifteen minutes before I continued to write this post. Tons of people say that Apple builds damn good products. Unfortunately, after owning several new Apple products, I can say by my account, Apple has the worst product build quality.
For example, I bought a G4 iBook in 2004. During my brief one year ownership, I had it serviced four times for the same LCD / logic board problem (the LCD backlight would fail to turn on). I kept the laptop on a desk the whole time, so under no circumstance was it my fault. After having it serviced the fourth time, Apple gave me a new iBook, which I quickly sold on eBay. I purchased a Compaq laptop, and after three years never had one issue with it.
I also had severe problems with a Intel Core Solo Mac Mini I purchased. Something was wrong with the Combo Drive; one startup the system would recognize the drive, the next startup the system wouldn't recongize the drive at all. The SATA hard drive controller also displayed problems when I was copying / transferring data. Unfortunately, when I contacted Apple for this problem, the service technicians actually tried to convince me that these problems were 'features' and would not do anything to help my Intel Mac Mini. So it went off to eBay, problems and all.
So why did I want to stick with Apple? It's not because of their hardware (it sucks), its because I really enjoy the software. Then again, it could just be that I'm stupid and wanted to give Apple yet another chance. Yeah, that's probably it.
But would I ever buy a Mac product again?
Most likely not. I go through enough computer hardware as it is. Sure OS X is cool for ten minutes, but that ten minutes of coolness is expensive. For the price of the base Macbook ($1100) I purchased a 1.6ghz Pentium Dual Core, 4gb RAM, 200gb HD, DVD burning, 15.4 widescreen Dell Inspiron that gets 4-5 hours of battery life for about 1/2 the price of the Mac Book.
"But it's not a Mac!"
Who cares?
Besides, OS X Leopard can run perfect (with all devices working) on this Inspiron 1525, in case I ever decide to screw around with OS X again.
Monday, February 4, 2008
Celeron 430 Revisited.
Wow. It's been four or so months since I last updated this blog! I haven't had a lot of cash to waste on computer products (I quit working full time to go back to school full time.. bummer) but I still managed to save enough moolah up to purchase a laptop (a Dell Inspiron 1525 for school) and am getting ready to go back to AMD for my desktop solution.
I just sold the Celeron 430 processor I bought several months ago for $20 to some guy on eBay for $35. I also plan to sell a Geforce 7300gs graphics card, and the Biostar socket 775 intel motherboard, and use the money to build a cheap AMD machine.
Why?
Well besides having an Intel Pentium Dual Core cpu in my laptop, I'm done with Mac OS X and the 430. The only reason I purchased the 430 was to be able to run OS X, but alas I grew tired of OS X and have moved on to bigger and better things (Okay, so now I am into Linux.. don't blame me, blame college professors that think you should have a firm grasp of Linux if you're trying to get your Master's degree in computer science).
But now, it's time for another look at the Celeron 430 processor. I made a big stink about it a couple months ago (because, well, I only paid $20 for it), but now that stink is really not a big deal, especially when the damn thing is still going for $50+ on the retail market.
Now it's time for another review of the processor.. and I hate to say it, but I don't really like the Conroe based processor any more. Why? Well, because of a few things.
The price, $50 is just not worth it. I guess I was rather lucky to obtain one for $20 several months ago, but if you are actually planning on purchasing one of these bad boys for $50, then you really have to think about this. Pentium Dual Core chips can be had for $20 more (which okay, is a 40% markup), but AMD actually has a wide range of CPUs for the same amount of money. You can get yourself a dual core Athlon for the same price as the Celeron 430 on NewEgg (Even if you overclock the Celeron, two cores are better than one for $50).
Okay, I admit I bashed AMD after I got the Celeron chip, but remember I overclocked the chip 33%. I didn't do a followup post, but the cheap motherboard wasn't fully able to handle the overclocked processor after several hours of operation. That's why I ended up having to set the Celeron 430 back to 1.8ghz, in which it had its ass handed to it several times by the Athlon X2. If you are going to use a cheap motherboard with the Celeron chip (which you most likely are, if you are only buying a Celeron), then chances are you too will run into crashes.
Today, AMD has a slew of processors under the Celeron 430's price. As I mentioned before, it's even possible to get a dual core Athlon for the same price. AMD also has a variety of new LE (I'm guessing it stands for Low Energy or something similar) processors including $30 Semprons and $45 Athlons that come with fans / heatsinks. The freaking LE-1160 (which is $45 at the time of this writing from NewEgg) runs at 45w, 2.4ghz and has a megabyte of L2 cache.
We'll see how my next experiment goes (with the LE-1160, naturlich!)...
I just sold the Celeron 430 processor I bought several months ago for $20 to some guy on eBay for $35. I also plan to sell a Geforce 7300gs graphics card, and the Biostar socket 775 intel motherboard, and use the money to build a cheap AMD machine.
Why?
Well besides having an Intel Pentium Dual Core cpu in my laptop, I'm done with Mac OS X and the 430. The only reason I purchased the 430 was to be able to run OS X, but alas I grew tired of OS X and have moved on to bigger and better things (Okay, so now I am into Linux.. don't blame me, blame college professors that think you should have a firm grasp of Linux if you're trying to get your Master's degree in computer science).
But now, it's time for another look at the Celeron 430 processor. I made a big stink about it a couple months ago (because, well, I only paid $20 for it), but now that stink is really not a big deal, especially when the damn thing is still going for $50+ on the retail market.
Now it's time for another review of the processor.. and I hate to say it, but I don't really like the Conroe based processor any more. Why? Well, because of a few things.
The price, $50 is just not worth it. I guess I was rather lucky to obtain one for $20 several months ago, but if you are actually planning on purchasing one of these bad boys for $50, then you really have to think about this. Pentium Dual Core chips can be had for $20 more (which okay, is a 40% markup), but AMD actually has a wide range of CPUs for the same amount of money. You can get yourself a dual core Athlon for the same price as the Celeron 430 on NewEgg (Even if you overclock the Celeron, two cores are better than one for $50).
Okay, I admit I bashed AMD after I got the Celeron chip, but remember I overclocked the chip 33%. I didn't do a followup post, but the cheap motherboard wasn't fully able to handle the overclocked processor after several hours of operation. That's why I ended up having to set the Celeron 430 back to 1.8ghz, in which it had its ass handed to it several times by the Athlon X2. If you are going to use a cheap motherboard with the Celeron chip (which you most likely are, if you are only buying a Celeron), then chances are you too will run into crashes.
Today, AMD has a slew of processors under the Celeron 430's price. As I mentioned before, it's even possible to get a dual core Athlon for the same price. AMD also has a variety of new LE (I'm guessing it stands for Low Energy or something similar) processors including $30 Semprons and $45 Athlons that come with fans / heatsinks. The freaking LE-1160 (which is $45 at the time of this writing from NewEgg) runs at 45w, 2.4ghz and has a megabyte of L2 cache.
We'll see how my next experiment goes (with the LE-1160, naturlich!)...
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